Beginning of Essay
One man’s bullet would force him into the presidency, and but for one man’s vote he would have been forced out. Like the impeachment of President Clinton, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 also ended in an acquittal.And like President ....

Middle of Essay
.... Radical Republican majority that sought to punish the former rebels of the Confederacy. The stage was set for a partisan fight that would ultimately center around a single act. In February 1868, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who was sympathetic to the Radical Republicans and who was overseeing the military’s Reconstruction efforts. A year earlier, Congress had passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prohibited a president from dismissing any officer confirmed by the Senate without first getting its approval. With Stanton’s firing, the call for Johnson’s impeachment began. “To say that they seized the opportunity was too ....